FujiFilm FinePix F770EXR Pro Reviews

There's plenty to love about the Fuji F770 EXR and - with just a few caveats that we experienced during our testing period - overall, this well made, pocket-sized powerhouse leaves a very favourable impression. On top of some excellent high-end features and full manual control, there's a great selection of automatic options and Fuji's versatile EXR sensor technology to boot. Suffice to say this is a very capable little camera that's well worth adding to your shortlist if a big zoom lens and a smaller price tag are among your top priorities.

The Finepix F770 EXR looks great and is capable of some stunning results, be they still, video or panoramics; the camera is also an odd mix of contradictions packed full of clever kit that then takes a while to get to grips with. The impressive sensor and processor mean technically, it's able enough and operates quickly, but the menu systems and interface are too convoluted. Getting up to speed and managing the menu systems are key to get most from this camera, but once you have got to grips with it, there's plenty more kit to play and have fun with.

The compact Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR offers up nice physical controls, a GPS, a long 20x zoom lens, Raw support, and very sharp images, but noisy low-light photos hold it back.

The new Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR offers extra features and a more refined design than its predecessor, but image quality has unfortunately taken a clear step backwards, which means that Fujifilm's travel-zoom camera still lags behind the main compeitition. The F770EXR has a new 16 megapixel EXR sensor, which still offers the same ISO range up to 12,800, fast continuous shooting speeds and full 1080p HD movies as its predecessor, but which Fujifilm claims to produce 30% less noise at ISO 3200. We actually found that the new sensor suffered from noise even at the base ISO setting of 100, showing further artifacts and loss of fine detail at the still slow speeds of ISO 200 and ISO 400, with higher settings becoming progressively noisy - not exactly what we were promised.

Fujifilm's FinePix F770EXR is a versatile little camera with a nice design and an ability to capture wonderfully-detailed and richly-coloured images. Its 25-500mm zoom lens, along with a small body size, make it a suitable camera to carry at all times.

The Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR is one of the smallest cameras available with a 20x optical zoom lens, and its redesigned handling with larger front grip helps keep the camera steady when shooting. The camera takes pleasing photos with good colour reproduction and has a variety of useful options including the ability to get better dynamic range in bright or difficult shooting conditions, although this is at a lower resolution when using the EXR modes. The camera does a lot of things well, increasing good GPS performance and a wide variety of controls including RAW support, however if you're keen on recording video then you may be a little disappointed.

Even though the Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR is a more budget travel zoom camera than much of the recent competition it has a load of features on offer. Really decent features too: GPS, raw shooting, EXR modes, and we could go on. But we’d really like to see a lens-based image stabilisation system in the next incarnation and, despite "sensor improvements" the overall image quality won’t cut it when it comes to fine detail work. The EXR output modes go some way to delivering better quality, but it has its limits - also take into account the overall exposure, occasionally problematic lens flare, live preview "pause" when focusing at longer focal lengths and there are some issues to be had. There have been a lot of F-series cameras in the past year, and although each has added subtle improvements it's taken the F770EXR to amp up the lens capability. But without lens-based stabilisation and some higher spec features, it's difficult for this compact to truly shine. The F770EXR is small, pocketable and affordable - although it's not that much cheaper than the competition. This is a travel zoom with some audible fizz, but it just doesn't quite have that explosive bang.

The controls and video mode could be better, but superb image quality and nippy performance make it a strong contender

The Finepix F770 EXR is a hard sell. It’s equal parts fast and slow – the impressive sensor and processor mean the thing technically operates quickly, but the disappointing UI leaves you wanting more. The average point and shoot user will struggle a bit getting up to speed and managing the navigation system, but once that’s over and done with, there are lots of surprises in there to keep you interested. Manual settings provide a decent amount of flexibility, and the 20x zoom, panorama mode, and GPS give it that something extra. Plus, it’s a remarkably small package for being a GPS-enabled camera. But in a market crowded with feature-packed point and shoots that have incredibly user friendly systems to explore and navigate, the F770 doesn’t stand out. These days you need a camera that doesn’t only get the job done, but that improves your abilities and keeps you entertained, making its price tag worth it.